The United Nations world climate conferences, such as COP27, which is being held in Sharm el-Sheikh these days, represent a unique opportunity for leaders from around the world to meet. Supported by experts, technical specialists, climatologists and scientists who, under the auspices of the UN, can spend two weeks attempting to reach concrete agreements to overcome dependence on coal, oil and gas and tackle climate change.

636 fossil fuel lobbyists at COP27, a hundred more than a year ago

For this reason, each nation sends large delegations every year — often running into the hundreds of people. But, as was already the case at COP26 in Glasgow, the largest group is not that of any state: it is that of the fossil fuel lobby. The data are published in an analysis by three non-governmental organisations — Global Witness, Corporate Accountability and Corporate Europe Observatory — according to which oil, coal and gas companies sent 636 people to Egypt to advocate for their interests. That is a hundred more than last year.

To put this into perspective, no nation sent as high a number of delegates to COP27 (with the exception of the United Arab Emirates, which will host COP28 and are therefore present with over a thousand people, compared with around 100 in Glasgow). The largest national group is that of Brazil, with 574 members. It is followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo with 459, Kenya with 386 and Canada with 377. Representatives of indigenous peoples, among those hardest hit by the impacts of climate change, number just 293. And, taken together, those from the ten nations most vulnerable to global warming (such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Haiti) do not reach the total number of lobbyists.

Greenpeace UK @GreenpeaceUK

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The 10 countries most threatened by climate change have fewer delegates at COP27 than the fossil fuel lobby.

How can that be right?

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29 governments have included lobbyists in their official delegations

These figures clearly demonstrate the extent of the effort being made by the fossil fuel sector to try by every means to slow the ecological transition. And given the severity of the climate crisis, which threatens the security of entire generations, the presence of those who "pull in the opposite direction" appears unacceptable in the eyes of the three NGOs: "Tobacco industry lobbyists wouldn't show up at a health conference. And arms manufacturers' lobbyists wouldn't go to a peace summit," they commented.

Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) @corporateeurope

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#COP27: The 636 #fossilfuel lobbyists outnumber almost all other interests:

🔻Local government (302)
🔻Indigenous people (293)
🔻Women & gender (227)
🔻Trade Unions (92)
🔻Farmers (89)

Yet who's trashing communities & the planet?
#KickBigPollutersOut
corporateeurope.org/en/2022/11/cop…

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To obtain the figures, the non-governmental organisations analysed the list of approximately 33,000 participants attending COP26, published by the UNFCCC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is responsible for organising the conferences. What is striking is the fact that a number of delegates are not present solely on behalf of fossil fuel companies: on the contrary, they are integrated into the lists of national representatives. As many as 29 governments have decided to include them in their official delegations. This means they will be able to gain easy access to the heart of the negotiations.